Flexible and multifunctional textile sensors woven from hierarchical structure yarns for integrated sleep activity monitoring and thermotherapy healthcare for pressure injuries

Abstract

Pressure injuries, a major healthcare threat for chronic bedridden patients, demand innovative solutions for real-time monitoring and therapeutic intervention. Existing rigid or film-based sensors face challenges in flexibility and multi-point sensing capabilities. Herein, we present a multifunctional textile sensor integrating real-time pressure monitoring and on-demand thermotherapy through hierarchical core–shell yarns (HCYs). The HCYs are fabricated via a continuous and scalable braiding technique, comprising a conductive core (silver-coated Lyocell yarns) and a protective nylon sheath, enabling high compressibility, excellent sensing performance (max GF = 21.5), and electrothermal performance with a controllable temperature range (39.3–77.8 °C). This effectively assists in alleviating muscle tension, thereby enhancing pressure injury prevention for patients. A machine learning-assisted smart posture monitoring system is further developed to achieve a high accuracy of 96.5% in recognizing sleeping postures, thereby effectively assessing the risk of injuries through the integration of deep learning, embedded systems, and internet technology. This work proposes a novel strategy for the efficient construction of smart textiles. Integrating wearable sensing and therapeutic functionalities aims at mitigating pressure injuries and improving patient care efficiency, thereby accelerating the advancement of next-generation wearable healthcare technologies.